1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for freezing food products, and more particularly, to a system for preparing frozen confections, such as ice cream, on a stick.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Food product freezing systems using refrigeration vaults containing endless conveyor belts are well known in the art and are typified by the structures shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,925,052 issued to Glass and 3,857,252 issued to Wight. The Glass patent discloses a refrigeration vault which contains an endless conveyor that carries a number of frozen confection molds through the refrigeration vault. The molds are configured to support sticks in the confections during freezing. When the confections are completely frozen the molds are heated to release the frozen confection therefrom and the confection may thereafter be coated and packaged having the shape imparted thereto by the mold.
The aforementioned patent to Wight U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,252 also discloses an endless conveyor belt which carries frozen confections in single file on a tortuous path through a freezing vault. The Wight conveyor belt is made up of a series of individual plates attached to a continuous chain. The plates are configured to receive portions of a confection each of which is extruded, cut off, and allowed to drop on one of the plates. The extruded confection portion is soft frozen, assuming a plastic-like state, and a stick is inserted into each confection portion in the soft frozen state immediately after it is extruded. The conveyor plates containing the confection portions with the inserted sticks are introduced into the refigeration vault through an opening in the vault wall. The part of the frozen confection which is displaced in each confection portion by the stick during its insertion produces internal forces that are directed outwardly to distort the external shape of the portion compared to its shape as originally extruded. While the special mold holding structure required by the Glass conveying arrangement is not required by Wight, the confection product produced by the Wight freezing apparatus retains the distortion imposed by the stick insertion process, and such distortion causes problems during packaging of the finished frozen articles.
A desirable system for producing frozen food articles is one which does not require a mold to carry the articles during the freezing process and yet which maintains the external shape of the frozen food article throughout the stick insertion and freezing steps of the process.